Jumping to Conclusions
by Nattou
Summary: Written for the ZA-Angels write off theme 2 things are not always what they seem. Troy Bolton is good at analyzing situations and coming to the right conclusions, but sometimes his analyzing habits has him jumping to the wrong ones as well.


**AN:** Short little oneshot written for the ZA-Angles Write off theme 2: Things are not always what they seem.

**Jumping to Conclusions**

The eastern Albuquerque mall was buzzing with life. A constant stream of chatter floated through the hallways and mixed with the many whines from unhappy children who would rather be anywhere but where they were right at that moment.

17 year old Troy Bolton was really close to whining right along with them. when his mother had informed him that he was joining her on her shopping trip as part of the punishment he was currently under for sneaking over to his girlfriends house in the middle of the night, she had failed to mention that they would be going to the mall so she could check out the sales at her favorite stores and ask him for his opinion. Punishment or not, he had informed her that the only way that was happening was if they could hit the sports store as well. Said compromise had been agreed upon, but that was over two hours ago and Troy was getting more and more fed up with the whole situation.

Trailing through the various isles in the store he let his fingers touch random articles of clothing. If the next store they visited wasn't the one he wanted to go to he was going to walk home. He'd rather be grounded for an extra day, because there was no way he was subjecting himself to more of this torture. He had had it.

Without thinking he rounded a corner and suddenly found himself in the children's department of the store. A group of kids were sitting near the corner of the room and out of pure curiosity Troy found himself walking towards them. What on earth could be interesting enough for them to sit still like that? As he closed the distance between them he heard them burst out laughing as the familiar voice of Donald Duck sounded. TV. He should have known. A smile crept onto his face as he suddenly remembered how he had snuck off when he was little and enjoyed some good old cartoons while his mother picked out clothes he really didn't care much about. As long as they weren't itchy he really hadn't been too bothered about what he wore. Part of him suddenly wished that he was seven again and could join in the fun over by the TV. Cartoons were far more interesting than giving his mother advice on what to buy. There was only one girl he happily did that for, but said girl was nowhere near, or so he thought. As he took a left turn he looked up momentarily and his eyes fell right on her face.

Gabriella Montez. 17 years old and his girlfriend of two whole years. Her profile was aimed towards him and he knew that she hadn't spotted him yet. Grinning he ducked behind a rack of.. Baby bodices? Confusion flooded him. Why would Gabriella be looking at baby clothes if that was what she was doing, all he had really seen was her standing there. To make sure, troy peeked his head out and found her once more. Yep, she was definitely looking at clothes. Checking sizes and everything. A wide smile spread on her face as she held a tiny outfit out in front of her. Was she going to buy it? Just as the thought entered his mind she turned around and headed for the register, her fingers gently touching the soft fabric.

The fact that his girlfriend was buying baby clothes didn't have to have mean anything right?

He ran a hand through his hair as a million and one thoughts raced through his mind. Something was definitely going on, but why hadn't she told him? If she was...pregnant...that meant he was going to be a... a shiver ran down his spine despite the fact that the mall was ridiculously hot.

She wouldn't keep something like that from him would she? An hour ago he would have said no in a heartbeat, but now he wasn't so sure.

A groan escaped him when he stood up properly. None of this made any sense. The fact that she had looked happy just confused him even more. After sex-ed she had said shed be scared shitless if she found out she was pregnant in High School.

"Troy? Are you alright? You look a little pale." His head snapped up at the sound of his mother's voice. He knew there was no point in pretending nothing was bothering him, but he also knew that telling the truth was out of the question. For all he knew Gabriella wasn't even pregnant and involving their parents would just add more drama to the situation. It would also mean having to admit out loud that the two of them were having sex, and that was not something he really felt like doing. He knew full well they suspected it, but that was something totally different than admitting that they were right.

"I've just had enough of this place, the noise is giving me a headache and it's so hot. Can we please leave now?" It was only a half lie. He really was fed up and he did have a headache, but it wasn't from the noise though.

Lucille Bolton studied her son for a moment before nodding.

"Let me just pay for these and we can leave."

"Thanks. Can I go wait in the car?"

Lucille nodded before handing him the car keys. She could sense that something was up but she didn't know what.

-HSM-

Troy breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted their car in the parking lot. He quickly climbed in and rested his head against the headrest.

He had to get to the bottom of this somehow, but didn't know how to go about doing that. He knew he should probably just ask her about what he had seen, but he had a feeling that he'd never get the words out without making it sound like he was accusing her or something. He at least needed to calm down first. When he was riled up or confused about something he had a tendency of blurting out things he didn't mean. Taking a few steady breaths he told himself that he was overreacting. In reality those clothes could be for anyone. Maybe someone in her family was pregnant or something, or maybe it was one of their friends. That had to be it. Someone she knew was having a baby, not her. He had just overreacted due to the dry mall air. It messed with his mind. Yep. That was it. Pleased with his conclusion he pulled out his phone and saw that he had one new text.

_-Hey Wildcat, tried calling but no answer, just letting you know I'll be away this weekend. Dad's about to pick me up and take me camping or something lol. Call you when I get home. Love you xxx –_

Camping? Gabriella? The thought made him chuckle, she wasn't exactly scared to get her hand dirty, but she wasn't Mr. Woodsman either. Mentally hitting himself for jumping to conclusions earlier he pressed call. There really was no point in dwelling on the matter. If something like that did happen, she would tell him.

It rang a few times before her voice floated into his ear.

"Hey Beautiful, sorry I missed your call earlier."

"_That's ok; I don't expect you to be attached to your phone 24/7."_

"Mom dragged me to the mall, I swear its worse than being grounded. How come you got away with no punishment?"

"_Mom said it wasn't the first time she had seen you sneak up my balcony and that she decided that I was old enough to have you stay over every now and then. Had we not been clothed it would have been an entirely different story, though, that's for sure."_

"Wait… I have _permission _to stay over?"

"_Uhu, as long as you ask your parents first."_

"Your mom rocks! Do you know that?" To say he was surprised was an understatement. They had asked, begged, to have sleepovers before, but no matter how nice they had promised to be, the answer had been no.

Gabriella giggled on the other end. _"Yeah, sometimes she is. Now you've just got to work on your parents to get them to agree." _

"Yeah… that's going to take some more work. Dad was not too pleased I snuck out."

"_I can imagine. I don't think dad would be too pleased either, so I've decided to not tell him. Easier on both of us. The safe sex talk is something I only want to go through once."_

The topic of their conversation gave her the perfect opportunity to say something, but the happy tone of her voice only made him more sure that it was his head that was making things up, and that he had nothing to worry about.

"Tell me about it. So camping? That's random?"

"_Very. Apparently he wants some proper us time this weekend away from all kinds of distractions so he rented an RV, thank god! Not sure how I'd feel about being crammed into a tent with him."_

"You didn't complain when we had our little camping trip last summer."

"_That was completely different and you know it. I don't snuggle with dad…"_

The comment made Troy laugh as he opened the door to the car. Even though it was parked in the shade the small room had heated up quickly in the afternoon sun.

"So it's just the two of you going?"

"Yeah, and the dog, his girlfriend opted out. Something about bugs and eating tinned food…."

-HSM-

By the time Monday morning rolled around, all of Troy's worries about Gabriella being pregnant had disappeared. He was, however, still very very curious. _Someone _was obviously pregnant. Someone she knew, which made it highly likely that he knew that person as well, but who? The question had been bothering him all weekend but he was no closer to finding an answer. Had it been Taylor he knew for a fact that Chad would have called him in a panicked frenzy the second he found out, and seeing as that had yet to happen, he had quickly ruled her out as a possibility. Then there was Ryan and Kelsi, but he wasn't even sure if they had had sex yet. Sharpay had been single for a few months and from what he knew she wasn't one to sleep around, so that was another one ticked off on the list in his head.

Truth be told, he wasn't even sure why it was such a big deal for him to find out. A small part of him told him that he just wanted confirmation that it wasn't Gabriella, but if that was true, he also had to admit to himself that he still feared his girlfriend was keeping something big from him. And he really didn't want that to be true.

"Troy, dude, watch where you're going," Chad's voice said as he felt a violent tug on his arm to keep him from colliding with the trashcan in the hallway.

"Whoa."

"I'll say. What the hell is up with you? You've been in your own little world ever since we left your house. You only ever get this way when something's up with the girlfriend, something wrong?"

"Nah, just been thinking. She's been camping this weekend so I haven't actually spoken to her. "

"Aaaah!" Chad exclaimed as if hearing that made everything make sense to him. "Going through withdrawals, I get it man; we all have your needs."

Troy raised his eyebrows at his best friend. "That's so not what I was talking about, Chad."

"Whatever dude, I have to get something from my locker and your girl is looking at you."

With that Chad left a rather amused looking Troy behind. He shook his head gently before turning his head to locate Gabriella. She was standing next to her locker as expected and shot him a tired smile.

Something wasn't right.

Making his way through the other students he stopped next to her and brushed a curl behind her ear.

"Hey, Babe, did you have fun this weekend?"

"Yeah," she nodded. An action that made him frown, she was usually way more upbeat in the mornings than this.

"Are you ok? You're not acting like your usual self," he asked gently as she gathered her books into her book bag.

"Yeah, just tired. My dad snores."

The words had barely left her mouth before the warning bell rang, making them both groan. Fate had been cruel this year and put them in different homerooms, which meant that they wouldn't see each other until third period science.

"Kiss before I go?" she asked softly, finally letting her brown orbs meet his blue ones. He smiled down at her for a second before leaning down to connect their lips in a quick kiss.

"See you later," she said with a small wave before disappearing down the hall. Despite her explanation and effort to act like she normally did, Troy couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. He didn't know what it was, but it was definitely something.

-HSM-

Troy was fairly certain that the hands on the clock had stopped moving. It felt like forever since the last time he glanced at the time, yet they had gotten no closer to recess than they were before. He hated when time crawled along like that, especially when he couldn't focus on anything but the end of class. His teacher, Mr. Alderman, had THE dullest voice ever, something which really didn't help make history fun.

"Come on..." Troy muttered to himself as he gently tapped his pencil against the notebook on his desk. Whatever was up with Gabriella was still on his mind, and his worry had only grown when he failed to spot her between first and second period. Due to the location of their classrooms they usually always ran into each other, but not today, and that was a fact that bothered him.

"Ok everybody, homework will be reading chapter 6, and I expect each and every one of you to be able to answer the questions at the end of the chapter should I feel the need to ask, but I may also ask questions you won't find in the book, so make sure you read properly and get a good understanding of what you read. The bell will ring in a few minutes, so unless there are any questions you are free to go. But make sure you're quiet in the hallway!"

Troy packed his books together in record time and was out the door almost before Mr. Alderman had finished talking.

"Dude, Troy! Wait up!"

The voice belonged to Chad and Troy slowed his pace down.

"You do know Gabs isn't out of class yet right?" his best friend asked teasingly, making him roll his eyes.

"Yes, Chad, but she's closer to the science room so she'll get there first anyways, especially since I need to get my books from my locker." The answer came out harsher than he intended it too and he immediately felt bad. It wasn't Chad's fault his head was a mess.

"Alright, alright," Chad said and held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Sorry. Just a lot on my mind and something's not right with her."

"How do you mean? She seemed normal this morning?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling... and she was too quiet this morning."

"Dude... you're whipped."

"Shut up."

He knew there was no point in arguing. He was whipped. Gabriella had him wrapped around her little finger and she was very much aware of that fact. Shaking his head gently he stopped at his locker and reached for the lock. Behind him he heard Taylor and Kelsi talk in hushed voices and his full attention was immediately focused on them.

"Hope she'll be ok. She really didn't look good," Kelsi said, making Troy frown.

"Yeah, she said she was just tired, but I guess it wasn't just that. Being tired doesn't make you throw up."

At this point Troy was fairly certain it was his girlfriend they were talking about. The three of them were close, and judging by the concern in their voices they were not just talking about some random girl in their class. Tossing the books he knew he'd need for homework into his bag he closed his locker before turning to face the girls.

"Where's..."

"Oh don't even pretend you weren't listening lover boy," Taylor cut him off, making him scratch his neck. Taylor had a way of making him feel about five years old when she was scolding him for something.

"Sorry...Just worried about her, I knew something was up," he confessed and a smile crept onto Kelli's face.

"Apparently she threw up right before second period and was sent home by the nurse. She stepped by class with a note to excuse her."

Kelsi had barely finished her sentence before Troy had started walking away.

"Tell whoever asks I felt sick too!" he called back and heard Taylor snicker before answering him.

"As if anyone will believe that."

"Don't care!"

-HSM-

The Montez driveway was empty when Troy pulled into it with his battered old truck and he couldn't help but wonder if she had walked home on her own while being sick. If she even was sick. Well apparently she had been sick, but was she ill? The pregnancy thoughts had immediately entered his mind again when he heard that she had thrown up. Wasn't that common in the beginning? Groaning he leaned against the wheel as he took a few deep breaths. He was just going to have to ask her. It would make sense if she was...what he had seen added up to that... and even though he had puhed it to the back of his mind, he knew there was the possibility of it being true. A condom had burst on them, and even though she was on the pill, there was a chance she could be pregnant.

With a sigh he opened the car door and jumped out. He couldn't avoid this any longer. He needed to know. And if she was, he had a feeling she needed him. Bypassing the front door he took a right instead and carefully opened the gate to her backyard. The hammock that they loved to occupy rocked gently in the wind as leafs rustled over his head. The air was warm and when he glanced up towards her balcony he could just make out her open door and dancing curtains.

Climbing that old tree was second nature to Troy. It was like his brain was set to autopilot and his arms and legs just knew which branches to step and hold onto to get to the top and onto her balcony. Their parents had joked multiple times that he was going to fall and break something at some point, but he seriously doubted that would happen. He had been more worried about her neighbors calling the cops in the beginning, but after being caught by all of them he knew the chances of that were slim to none.

As he climbed over the railing the fierce need he had felt to see her back in school had faded. He still needed to know what was going on, but the adrenaline that could have made him burst through the door and demand an answer was long gone.

He could already tell that the lights in her room were dimmed or off, something which told him she was definitely not feeling well. She wasn't one to nap unless she was sick.

Making his way towards the door he pulled it open and stepped inside. His eyes immediately landed on her bed and he felt his heart break for her when he spotted her sleeping frame. His bubbly, happy girlfriend was curled up on her bed, her usually serene face pale and tense. Slipping off his sneakers by the door, Troy carefully made his way over to her and sat down on the edge of the bed. Gabriella's even breaths and the ticking of her alarm clock were the only sounds in the room and for a moment he was content just watching her, the reason for his visit almost forgotten.

Suddenly her lips twitched slightly as her eyes squeezed shut, Troy's arm reached out so his fingers could stroke her cheek before he had a chance to stop it. It looked as if she was in pain.

The soft touch seemed to rouse her and her eyelids slowly fluttered open.

"Hi, Babygirl," Troy greeted softly when her eyes landed on him.

"Troy?" her voice was laced with confusion and he shot her a smile.

"Yeah."

"What are you doing here? You should be in school."

"So should you… what's going on, babe?"

Gabriella bit her lip and sunk further into her pillows.

"I got sick."

"So I heard…"

"You don't believe me?" Her eyes showed hurt and he hated himself for the way the statement had come out.

"No, I do, I'm just confused."

"About?"

"What I saw, and then you didn't tell me, and then my head went into overdrive and just… " he was ranting. He hated when that happened.

"Troy…what are you talking about? What did you see?"

"I was at the mall and I saw you shopping…"

"Oh…_oh!_ You thought…"

"I don't know what I think…" he sighed.

"I'm not pregnant, Troy, if that's what you were worried about," she said gently as she sat up and ran a hand through his hair.

"No?"

"No. How did you come to that conclusion?" the question came out in a soft voice and he knew she wasn't annoyed with him for practically accusing her of keeping secrets from him.

"I saw you there… buying baby clothes, and it just didn't make sense to me. In the end I came to the conclusion that those could have been for anyone, and I was satisfied with that… but then I saw you at school and you weren't being yourself… and then you got sick… and well… my head went back to the time..."

"The condom broke," she finished.

"Yeah."

He wasn't sure what to call the look currently on her face, but her eyes showed nothing put pure love.

"What would you have done if I were?" The question came out as a whisper, but she never broke their eye contact.

"I don't know," Troy said honestly. "I just needed to know."

As he spoke her bottom lip disappeared into her mouth and he quickly leaned down and kissed her softly.

"I would have stayed, if that's what you're asking," he whispered, pleased when a smile graced her lips. "But I think you already knew that, right?" he added.

Gabriella gave a simple nod before giving a proper answer.

"It's still nice to hear," she said as she let her body sink back to her mattress again.

"What's really going on, babe?" Troy asked in a gentle voice while his fingers traced the outline of her face.

"Cramps," she simply stated and Troy frowned. He could barely remember a time those had kept her in bed or away from school.

"They made you sick?"

"Yeah. It's happened before, but not for a long time. Mom says it my hormones that go haywire. Whatever it is… I don't like it. "

"Aww babe, what can I do?"

"Cuddle?" she asked sweetly, making him chuckle.

"Sure."

"No jeans."

The demand made him laugh quietly, but he dutifully unbuttoned his pants and let them fall to the floor before crawling into bed with her. As she made herself comfortable against his chest, Troy wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. He could feel her hot water bottle against his thigh and smiled. Secretly he loved how comfortable she was around him. He could still remember how shy she had once been about telling him she was on her period or that her stomach was hurting, worried he'd find it gross. Once upon a time he had, he'd admit that, but he had grown up since then. He felt more sorry for her than anything else. He absolutely hated seeing her in pain.

"Troy?"

The barely above a whisper question pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"My mom's having a baby."

"What?" Out of all the people he had imagined her shopping for; Maria was not one of them.

"Yeah…"

"You're going to be a big sister?"

"Uhu."

Just from the tone of her voice he could tell she was smiling.

"When?"

"Not for another like… seven months."

"Someone's impatient," he teased and pulled her closer.

"Don't mock… I've wanted a sister or brother since I was four."

"I'm just playing with you, babe," he said before kissing her head. "I'm happy for you."

"Me too…it's a little weird though."

"Because of Charlie?"

Charlie was Gabriella's stepfather. He had been around for nearly ten years, but it was only last summer that he had finally married her mother.

"Yeah…I love him and all, its just weird that he'll be that babys dad, and I have a different one."

Not knowing what else to do, Troy simply started stroking her back and planted a kiss on her head.

"I'm still excited though, its just a little weird. That's not wrong is it?"

"Not at all. Even if it was your mom and dad I think something like that would take some proper getting used to."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner… mom told me not to, in case something happened you know. She's not 20 anymore."

"Don't worry about it, babe. I'm sure everything will be ok,"Troy said before closing his eyes and letting his body relax. He knew she likely to fall asleep any moment, so instead of talking more, he kept on stroking her back and randomly placing kisses against her hair. Sleep was slowly clouding his mind, and his last thought before giving in was that her becoming a big sister suited him much better than her becoming a mother.


End file.
